“One Day” by Imagine Dragons

“One Day” appears to be one of the more imaginary, no pun intended, songs found on Mercury – Act 1. And the reason we’re making such a postulation is because it reads as if the vocalist, i.e. Dan Reynolds, is addressing a romantic interest he has a troubled relationship with. 

Meanwhile, in reality by all indications he is happily married to Aja Volkman. In fact Monday, another song found on this selfsame album, is based on that very reality. So once again we have to presume that in this case Reynolds is portraying a character, even though most of Mercury is, to varying degrees, based on his real life.

And what the vocalist is telling the addressee is that whereas in the present she may not be happy with their relationship, he is confident that “one day” he will make her so. Indeed the lyrics are imbued with a defeatist, if you will, attitude, one in which the singer feels he has to make presumably fundamental changes to himself in order to please his partner. 

Or explained otherwise, he is taking the blame upon himself for whatever discontent exists within this relationship, i.e. failing to live up to his partner’s expectations.

Could Lyrics be Inspired by Real Life?

Of interest is the fact that, in the second verse, the vocalist implies that he and the addressee have children. So maybe it is possible that Reynolds is perhaps alluding to a less-than-ideal aspect of his marriage with Volkman. 

But what this character really comes off as is someone who has done his best to make his significant other happy yet, in her eyes and by extension his own, has come up short. So now he is tasked with making promises in the name of an ideal future for the family which, all things considered, he may not even be able to keep. Or put more into layman’s terms, the narrator sounds a lot like a dude begging his wife not to leave him.

Facts about “One Day”

The release of “One Day” on the date of 3 September 2021 was made possible by two record labels, Interscope and Kidinakorner. Imagine Dragons have been associated with both labels for nearly a decade now.

This is the 13^th and final track on the standard playlist of Mercury – Act 1, the band’s 2021 undertaking. The studio album Imagine Dragons came out with directly prior to this was 2018’s Origins, which wasn’t an over-the-top commercial success but, as is their standard, performed well on the Billboard 200 and UK Albums Chart.

The producers of this song, Jesse Shatkin and Sir Dylan, are also given songwriting credit alongside the four individuals that make up Imagine Dragons, who are:

• Ben McKee
• Daniel Platzman
• Dan Reynolds
• Wayne Sermon